Tonight, The Batman Breaks!
by Nightwing X
Summary: The life of Batman and all around him will change. Friends and family turned against each other. Tonight, the Batman Breaks!
1. PROLOGUE

**-PROLOGUE-**

The streets of Gotham City are alive tonight. People walking on the street conversing, minding their own business. There's a few petty crimes here and there, but nothing the GCPD can't handle. Beggars and hobos lying side by side on the pavement, waiting for a miracle. Parties in buildings and homes; such greed, gluttony, and lust. This is what pumps Gotham's veins, its blood. This is what keeps Gotham alive. This is Gotham itself. But there is one person who can bring this all down. Yet, this person is a mystery. The said man can bring the whole city down with one finger. But this person needs to hide, because fear tells him so. Just like any other criminal, fear eats him up. It forces him to do things he mustn't do. Things that would endanger society, but ironically, society is what causes fear. Society only wants things that would benefit them, therefore leaving out the rest. This man though wants something different. Something similar to the reason why this city is so protected. It is nothing, but revenge. But to do this, he must take down the most filthy, and at the same time, the richest city of all, Gotham.

But even as devious as this sounds, hope is always around. It lurks in the shadows, waiting to be realized and grasped, as long as the holder truly wants it. And in Gotham City, hope is always symbolized as something rather unusual… something strange and dark… Hope in Gotham City, as it always was and will be, is the Batman.

_1 year ago…_

"Nightwing to Batman, do you read?" Nightwing talks over in his communicator. "I hear you. What do you want?" Batman arrogantly replies, "There has been a reported kidnapping near your location, mind if you check it out?" Nightwing answers, but he hears no response. Though this may seem a little unsettling, Nightwing still patrols around his area, for he knows that the Batman has already moved out.

Running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Batman hears the sound of the people of the GCPD getting louder and louder as he moves closer to the said location. When he finally got there, he sees a building surrounded by police cars and officers. He silently jumped from the roof of one building and to the roof of the building containing the kidnappers. He accesses his communicator and calls Alfred. "Alfred, can you get me info on who was kidnapped?" Batman requested as he could hear Alfred typing on the Batcomputer, "5 people kidnapped a group of young and old people, sir. And it appears that the abducted have no connection to each other. It says here that they were all picked up randomly at different places." Alfred answered, "Wait, they have no connection to each other? That's strange…" Batman replied, "Don't you think, sir, that aside from the ransom, is that they're trying to get your-" "Attention. They're trying to get my attention. I can hear them from here. They're shouting and calling out for my name. Hh. Time to pay them a visit." Batman says as he smashes a hole into the roof. The kidnappers stand there astounded and scared of what they've just seen. "Rough night?" Batman funnily greets.

The GCPD start to draw their firearms as they hear the sound of the smash, and they flinched. "Thank God he arrived" Commissioner Jim Gordon says "HOLD YOUR FIRE, MEN". "He always arrives on time, doesn't he?" Harvey Bullock arrives with a cup of coffee in hand. "We should be thankful, you know? Most of our cases we wouldn't have finished without his help. He's like a savior or something." he says, as the commissioner stands quietly out in the cold staring into the building. "Who knows what's going on inside? But I'm pretty sure he'd beat the crap outta those with no sweat." "I'm sure of that too… Yes, I'm sure…" the commissioner replies.

"G-G-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" one of the kidnappers scream at the sight of the Bat. He starts randomly shooting everywhere as his fellow men calm him down, but to no avail. Due to this, he accidentally shoots himself on the foot. "AAAAIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" another scream arose from him. Blood began spurting out of the foot. This doesn't startle Batman one bit, so he jumps and kicks two of them, instantly incapacitating them, leaving only two members left. One of them grabbed one of the abducted and placed a gun to her head. "You better not come any close or I'll shoot! I'll shoot I tell'ya! I'LL SHOOT!" he crazily says. The Batman quickly throws a Batarang at his hand and disarms his gun. "OOOWWWWW!" he goes. That leaves only one kidnapper left. "D-d-don't y-you t-t-t-touch m-m-meee!" the last one says. Batman goes up to him, grabs his shirt and lifts him up, placed his back against a wall and says "What do you want, and who do you work for?", "W-w-w-we c-c-c-can't t-tell!" the last one replies, horrible breath coming from his mouth, "Then what do you have to gain from this?" Batman replies, "We came to tell you this: 'Gotham City is going down. And the Batman is going down with it'. I'm afraid that we can't tell you who we work for." A 6th man appears, but only stays in the shadows, not revealing his appearance. Batman threw his held kidnapper at the hidden man but he disappeared, leaving the last kidnapper fainting. The Batman, begins to remember the foul odor of the kidnapper's breath as it makes him dizzy and nauseous, nevertheless he stays calm and collected. He searched the kidnappers for evidence but only found a cellular phone, which of course was better than nothing. He opens the door and frees the held captives, and at the same time he vanished.

"Are you alright?" the commissioner asks the captives. They all said yes and went to their respective families who were waiting outside the building. "What do you think did he find" Harvey Bullock asks, "I don't know. But whatever it is, he can make use of it and find the person behind this." The commissioner replies.

Standing on a rooftop, Batman looks at the phone and hides it again. "Whoever you are, you picked the wrong city to mess with." He jumps and vanished into the night.


	2. Chapter 1: Arrogance

**Chapter 1: Arrogance**

"Checkmate.", "WHAT!" Damian shouts as he sees Alfred move his Queen to corner his King, "That's unfair, Pennyworth!" another shout as he scrambles the pieces and flips the chessboard over. "It's just a matter of staying two steps ahead of the enemy, Master Damian." Alfred calmly says. Damian pays no attention to this, and leaves furiously out of the room, passing by Dick Grayson who was holding a slice of pizza. "It's a good thing we could handle 'em." Dick says trying to initiate a conversation, "Yes, yes, Master Richard. He always has the tendency to be violent at times. Still, he is your brother and you must respect him." Alfred replies, "Not exactly my 'brother'-brother, just my brother… I mean all of us here are brothers!" Dick answers. "Knock knock? It's 10 in the morning, anyone want to catch a movie?" a young man appears on the door, it's Tim Drake, or now legally known as Tim Wayne, the third Robin and now goes by the alias of Red Robin. "Naaahhh, can't go out right now." Dick replies, "Why so?" Tim answers as he picks up the fallen chess pieces on the floor, "The brat's gone all violent again?" Tim asks Alfred, "Yes, I'm afraid so, Master Timothy. But nevertheless, he is still your brother." Alfred replies, "Again with the family speech? Sheesh. So Dick are you going with –" Tim asks as he sees Dick running away from the room, Tim gives a small giggle.

_Meanwhile, in the Batcave..._

"Batcomputer, scan for any recent crimes." Bruce kindly requests the computer, "Stop search. Hm, no new crimes. That must be a good sign...", then suddenly a wrench came out of nowhere but knowing Bruce, he grabbed it and disarmed the holder, it was Damian. "What do you want?" Bruce asks, "I came to visit you, father. You have been busy the past year. It's like the time when you were handling the Black Glove case, according to Pennyworth." Damian replies. Bruce pays no attention to this and starts another scan on the Batcomputer. Damian, being the brat he is, grabs the wrench and tries to hit Bruce again only to be hit by a Batarang. "Nah-ah-ah. You can't go and hit your father like that. He'll get mad!" says a slender young man by the entrance of the cave, Dick. "What do you, Grayson?" Damian asks, "Ah, nothing. Just came to see some quality "father-son" bonding." Dick replies. As Dick was moving forward, the three men hear a very loud crash coming from the manor. This is quite peculiar because you can't hear anything come from the manor when you're in the cave, so this is something quite loud. They all go running to the manor.

While running, they hear a gunshot. An intruder. There's an intruder in the house. This makes Bruce into a state of unease, for the first time of his life. 'Why didn't the security system detect the intruder?', 'Who is this intruder?' are the thoughts that come into his mind. They finally reached the source of the sound, and they see something very, very shocking; Alfred on the floor... bleeding. 'Oh God, no.' Bruce speaks in his mind.


	3. Chapter 2: To Save a Life

**Chapter 2: To Save a Life**

"ALFRED. ALFRED. CAN YOU HEAR ME? STAY WITH US!" Dick shouts as he runs to Alfred. He checks his pulse and gave out an unsettling look. "His pulse is slow… We've gotta take him to a hospital!" Dick says to Bruce, "NO! THERE'S NO TIME. WE CAN DO THIS HERE." Bruce replies angrily, "NO. THIS IS SOMETHING WE CANNOT DO BY OURSELVES. We have to take him to a hospital. Right. Now." Dick answers back. Damian stands in the corner, shocked, while watching the two men argue. "STOP IT. You idiots need to calm down. Grayson's right, we need to get him to a hospital." Damian announces, rather in a nervous tone. Bruce was surprised by this and reluctantly followed.

The three of them went to the garage and rode a Lamborghini. They headed straight to the nearest hospital. Bruce was driving, Damian was in the front seat, while Dick was at the back taking care of Alfred. "Hold on, Alfie. You can do it… Hold on…" Dick whispers to Alfred's ears. "TIM. CALL TIM." Bruce suddenly blurted out. Damian brings out his cellular phone and calls, *beep-beep-beep* "He's not answering, father. Where in the world is he right now!". "GUYS. ALFRED'S LOSING IT. HURRY!" Dick shouts as Bruce expertly glides the car throughout the street. When they finally arrived at a hospital, nearby civilians are shocked by the terrible sight; blood dripping everywhere. "SOMEBODY GET US A DOCTOR!" Damian shouts. The doctors finally arrived and brought Alfred directly to the emergency room. Bruce, Dick, and Damian stay outside, worried.

They stood there for hours, waiting. *ring-ring-ring* The phone of Damian rings, "Father, it's Drake." Damian says, Bruce grabs it and begins to shout "WHERE IN THE WORLD WERE YOU!", "Whoah, whoah, settle down. What's wrong?" Tim asks. "ALFRED'S IN CRITICAL CONDITION! WHERE WERE YOU!" Bruce furiously replied. "HEY. Listen. I got hit by someone and I just got up! I don't know who he is! So don't ask me anything! Where are you anyway!" Tim answered back. There was a standstill, then Bruce gave a scream so loud, that everyone looked. He dropped the phone and gave another ghastly howl. He found the strength to sit down, cover his face with his hands, and cry. Dick and Damian sat beside him and gave comfort. "Dick, Damian…" Bruce desperately says. As Dick begins to open his mouth, the doors opened and the doctors came out. "I'm sorry, mister Wayne. I'm afraid your old friend has passed away…" one doctor said. Bruce stared out into space and flashbacks of memories of him and Alfred come into play. He knelt down and tears began rolling on his face. Dick did likewise but with more expression and sadness. Damian, on the other hand, stood there in shock without a word. "Dead…" Bruce mutters.


End file.
